LinkedIn is a social media site for professional networking. You use it to highlight your professional and educational accomplishments and connect with other professionals. Recruiters use it to view your profile like a resume.

Need help with this powerful tool?Make an appointment with a career specialist and we'd be happy to assist you with your LinkedIn profile!

Profile Sections Tips

Headshot: The more professional looking, the better.

Headline: This defaults to your current job title. But you can edit it to something more appropriate. For example, Engineering Student at Bethel University or Bethel Alum Seeking Opportunities in Criminal Justice. The term "seeking opportunities" is commonly used by recruiters to search for job seekers.

Summary: Add a brief summary about why someone should hire you. Keep the description brief and focused on professional and educational accomplishments.

Skills: Recruiters can search by skills that you list. Include skills that relate to your industry.

Experience: This can be similar to a resume. Include highlights and accomplishments not just duties at your job. Start your bullets with an action verb, and include details and results. Experience does not have to only be paid work (e.g. internships, volunteering, research).

Contact info: Use your personal email so that you won't lose your account if you switch jobs.

Adding Connections

Etiquette: Whenever you send an invitation to connection, edit the standard connection message. Add a greeting with their name and a sentence about how you know them or why you want to connect.

Bethel connections: Use the advanced search to look for alumni, faculty, students, and other friends of the Bethel community.

Groups: Search for people in your area of interest by joining groups and connecting with other members of those groups.

Email search: If you feel comfortable, you can give access to LinkedIn to search the contacts in your personal email and then recommend people that you have emailed in the past.

Best Practices

Be active and check your LinkedIn account regularly: Share in group discussions, reach out to your connections, follow up with people.

Add as many connections as possible: Most people find a job through a connection, thus the more connections the better. However, unless you pay for a premium account, you can only message people who are 2nd degree connections or in a shared group. The more groups and 2nd degree connections that you have, the more people you can network with.

Recommendations and Endorsements: Find former supervisors, co-workers, or others who know your professional abilities and ask them to write a brief recommendation to enhance your profile. Endorsements are less valuable. Use endorsements sparingly and honestly..

Groups: The more groups and subgroups you're a part of the more group members you can chat with. You can join 50 groups and any subgroup. Active groups also function as a listserv. Ask and respond to questions to gain and share insights.

Follow Companies: Companies will post jobs or you can see who has just left a position at that company.

Jobs: Postings on LinkedIn can be viewed by millions, so this isn't the most efficient way to find jobs. But there is a special page for students and recent grads jobs. Some jobs are also posted in groups. But they usually end up buried on the jobs tab, so look at that tab for postings.

Seeking employment when currently employed: By default, LinkedIn announces updates that you make to your profile. Be sure to go into your profile settings and turn off your "activity broadcasts."

Webinar: Come see us and talk about your profile. However, if you can't schedule time with us, watch LinkedIn's weekly webinar for new users.